Rev3 Knoxville Dissected – What You Need To Know

If you are looking for a centrally located, beautiful, challenging Olympic distance race, Rev 3 Knoxville should be on your schedule. This event takes place every year in early May, and being in Knoxville Tennessee it often delivers great weather; usually cool but often sunny, clear and pleasant. The first time I did this event was in 2010, and I was impressed right off the bat with the convenience of the race. I stayed at the Holiday Inn (host hotel) and could look out the hotel window to see the expo area and finish chute; pretty cool. The transition area was just a 5-10 minute walk away down a paved path. One thing that any triathlete will value is convenience and all things being located nearby; Rev 3 Knoxville is great for this. Additionally, if you want to hit a pool nearby pre-race, you can visit the Lindsay Young Downtown YMCA (a cool older building with a little 25-yard pool) which is about a block away from the Holiday Inn, for a nominal fee of $5.

The swim takes place in the Tennessee River, and it is often on the cooler side; expect that you’ll likely wear wetsuits.You enter the water right off the dock of Calhoun’s on the River, and swim ‘upstream’ for about 1/3 of a mile before turning the buoy and in turn getting a nice downstream swim to the finish. Expect the sun to be in your eyes for that first part (assuming a clear day) so be sure to have darker goggles on hand. The swim is pretty simple and straight-forward; if you get lost on course here, you may have bigger issues to deal with regards to your open water swimming!

You will exit and run up the ramp into T1 which takes place under the Neyland Street Parking Garage (so it is covered in case of inclement weather). The bike course is awesome and challenging. You will exit out of T1 and meander out of downtown. Be sure to keep your eyes on the road the entire ride; there are a lot of twists and turns throughout the course. (It may not hurt to drive it if you have a chance pre-race). Also be sure your bolts are tightened on your bike as you have a few bumps in the road as you exit downtown. You’ll head out into the country a bit, where you’ll be surrounded by trees and houses; I have also raced Columbia Triathlon a few times, and I would compare this bike course in part to Columbia up in Maryland. Beautiful but also challenging, hilly and fun. Be sure that your shifting is dialed in as well, as you will want to be using all of your gears with the combination of fast descents and a few good climbs.

You’ll come back into downtown and enter the same area for T2; heading out onto the run course. You will head out onto Neyland Drive, in the opposite direction you biked, and you’ll be greeted with some rolling terrain soon out onto the road. After about 1.5 miles, you’ll hit a paved run path (the Knoxville Greenway Trail System) that you will take out and back for a good portion of the 10k course, which is fairly flat. This is a nice change to see where your fellow competitors are, but also enjoy some more tree-lined scenery. You’ll hit the turnaround at which point you are within 3 miles of the finish. Head down the path, and take a left onto the main road, and finish up where you started the run, along the river.

This begins one of the great attributes of Rev 3 Events…the finish! They do a great job of making the finish exciting, attractive and make each person feel special at the finish line. You will run by your transition areas and then head left onto another paved run path. At this point you are about ½ mile from the finish area. I recommend dropping the hammer here and putting every last ounce into your race! Enjoy this spot, as you’ll see a few people cheering along the path. You’ll finally turn onto the grass and up ahead you’ll see the awesome Rev 3 Finish Banner up ahead. Take a minute to glance around; it’s always fun to finish these races, as the entire area is decked out with people, expo, and most of all the much welcomed finish line.

Once your work is done, enjoy a 15-20 min walk to Market Square District of Knoxville. This is such a cool spot…you’ll find drum circles, live music, entertainment and a multitude of places to re-fuel (and even more fun, re-hydrate!) post-race. Yet another cool thing about Rev 3 Knoxville; if you have family and friends to support, they too can enjoy themselves as it is essentially a race in the middle of a fun, accessible town with more to offer than just spandex-cladden triathletes.

Comments

Kelly

Williamson

View Bio

Growing Up
I was raised in Zionsville, Indiana, the youngest of 3 girls, and divided my time between swimming, soccer, gymnastics and of course some learning thrown in there. I started swimming and playing soccer at age 4, and I was constantly saying to my parents “I can do it MYSELF.” I was stubborn and extremely active. By age 10, I started putting all of my free time into swimming, which took me through my high school years and on to University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. I swam all 4 years there, studied Kinesiology, and had an awesome college experience. I focused on the 1650, 500 free, 200 fly and 400 IM. While my improvements in the pool seemed to plateau about my Junior year, I still loved the sport and once I finished Senior year, I was left thinking “What now?”
Olympic Dreams…Or Not
I started doing triathlons the summer after finishing swimming, all local events, and discovered what fun they were. I said that I would ‘not take it seriously’, but when I was given a chance to move to Colorado Springs in 2003 and train at the Olympic Training Center, I could not pass it up. I moved to the mountains (which was my ultimate goal!) and trained there through 2005. I had a few big success’, winning Pan American Championships in 2002 and qualifying for the World Championship Team in 2002 as well. I had no idea what I was doing and I am not quite sure how I did these two things, I think in large part due to being young, naive and simply doing what I was told. In 2004, I was starting to realize that my heart was not with the Olympic format racing; I just did not enjoy the drafting and the feeling that your race all depended upon tactics and external factors. I have always liked to do my own thing, be given my own space, and accomplish my goals individually. This seemed to show, and in 2005, a bike crash (resulting in a double compound fracture of my left arm, and then 3 surgeries in 8 months) seemed a good transition point in my life and my career.
Colorado to Texas & Going Longer
My husband Derick and I moved to Austin, TX in 2006, much to (yet again) my resistance, as he was headed to UT for Grad School. I was honestly a bit sick to my stomach moving to Texas from living in Manitou Springs, CO; but we have been beyond pleasantly surprised with this AMAZING town. I began dabbling in the longer racing, while also doing some online coaching on the side. I tackled my first marathon in 2008, my second marathon in 2009, and finally an Ironman in 2010 (Coeur d’Alene). I love the 70.3 distance races yet I realized that I just had to give this Ironman thing a shot; it was an unknown, and to me that it exciting. I was 3rd at my first ever Ironman in Coeur d’Alene (9:39) and qualified for Kona, finishing in 15th overall female in 2010 (9:36). I saw my first 70.3 victories in 2010 (Branson & Steelhead 70.3), a few more in 2011 (San Juan 70.3 & Buffalo Springs 70.3) while finishing 2nd at Muncie 70.3 and Boulder 70.3. I proved to have some talent for Ironman as well, finishing 2nd at Ironman Texas (9:07) and went on to Kona for a 13th place finish (9:29).
2012 has started off with a bang and I just hope to continue this progress; stay healthy, enjoy myself and continue to push the limits of what my body is capable of doing. Along with big results come big goals…and no doubt, I’ll attack them with the same excitement, intensity and focus that I have for the past 10 years.